Bill connects tourism money, lifeguards

JOHN HENDERSON News Herald Reporter @PCNHJohn

Monday

Jan 11, 2016 at 4:48 PMJan 11, 2016 at 4:57 PM

State Sen. Don Gaetz plans to introduce legislation that would allow tourist-development tax dollars to be spent on hiring lifeguards and beach safety personnel in Walton County — but not Bay County, unless officials here say they want to be included in the proposed new law.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — State Sen. Don Gaetz plans to introduce legislation that would allow tourist-development tax dollars to be spent on hiring lifeguards and beach safety personnel in Walton County — but not Bay County, unless officials here say they want to be included in the proposed new law.

Bills filed last week by Gaetz and Rep. Brad Drake, R-Eucheeanna, include wording that mistakenly calls for only Okaloosa County to have the right to spend the funds on lifeguards, Gaetz’s legislative aide said Monday.

He said the wording of the legislation will be changed to reflect what the senator really was trying to put forth — a bill allowing the expenditures in Walton County, where Gaetz said tourism officials and county commissioners have asked that he propose a bill giving them that right.

“While the bill was suggested to us by the Walton County Commission and the Walton County Tourist Development Council, we would be happy to expand the bill to any county that wants to be included,” Gaetz, R-Niceville, told The News Herald on Monday.

In 2013, there was backlash to a bill that would have allowed coastal counties with less than 250,000 population to spend bed-tax funds on lifeguards — including Bay County — but the bill never passed.

In October, the Bay County Commission greed to ask the Tourist Development Council (TDC) to consider using TDC funds to pay for lifeguards at up to three county parks on the Beach: Richard Seltzer Park and by the county and city piers. The TDC has yet to vote on the proposal. Currently the city of Panama City Beach pays for lifeguards at the City Pier.

Bay TDC Executive Director Dan Rowe said Monday the TDC can use bed-tax money to fund lifeguards under current law “under very specific circumstances” related to marketing for visitors.

“There may be opportunities for us to assist [in the cost of lifeguards], but we’ve not brought anything back,” Rowe said. “There are other issues related to lifeguards, not just funding [salaries]. One thing we heard when TDC was talking about this a couple of months ago was you get into liablity issues, so we have to have a thorough understanding where all those issues lay out prior to making a determination if that would be a priority or not.”

County Commissioner and TDC member Mike Thomas said Monday he was glad to hear Bay County wasn’t included in the state law Gaetz is proposing, but added that he still is concerned the state is trying to get its foot in the door into controlling the expenditures of local TDCs.

“I just don’t know that we need them telling us what to do all the time,” Thomas said. “That’s just a first step in them doing it. If they get it, they’ll come over here next, I believe, and I wish they’d just leave us alone, and I’m glad they are right now.”

Gaetz said Monday the bill in 2013 had some detractors, so he’s narrowed its focus to try and adhere to the request from Walton County officials.

“I can’t speak for everybody who may have had problem with the bill, but I can tell you in general there were some down-state tourism industries who did not want to have any flexibility in the use of TDC funds, and that’s why we have a very limited bill this year,” Gaetz said. “But if the Bay County Commission would like to be included, we would be more than pleased to include them.”

Gaetz said he understands why some Bay County officials would like lifeguards funded with the TDC bed-tax funds.

“I certainly believe that lifeguards and beach safety are integral to tourism,” Gaetz said. “Nothing cools tourism faster than a dangerous beach, and so as a non-lawyer I certainly support that point of view. But I want to make sure that the law is clear that TDC funds can be used for this purpose.”

The proposals filed last Thursday make tourist-development money available to any coastal county with fewer than 225,000 residents and at least nine municipalities. Okaloosa County, with two incorporated towns and seven incorporated cities, had 190,550 residents as of an April 1, 2015, estimate by the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Under the wording of the bills that were filed, Bay and Walton counties don’t have enough cities to be included in the new law. Gulf and Franklin counties wouldn’t qualify, either.

Jon Irvin, the director of marketing and communications for Visit South Walton, the tourism marketing arm for Walton County, said the county has a beach safety program and lifeguard service.

Irving said Gaetz recently has called for many changes in how tourist development taxes are spent, and this bill is believed to be an offshoot of that.

“I will say it has been a little hard for everyone to digest because there was so much talk in December about whole variety of philosophical changes and differences,” he said.

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